Among many other outstanding Olympic sports, congratulations to the US surfers and soccer players! Surfing is often overlooked by the women, but we are improving. Soccer players are on the map with five gold medals, they are better than the men (so far)! The same cannot yet be said for surfing. For decades, female surfers were not even paid, they were lucky if they got recognition and won prizes. They had to finance themselves and lead a spartan life. Margo Olberg of California was the first to win prize money, $1,000 at the 1975 championships, but far less than the men (and you can’t live on $10,000 a year today). Layne Beachley of Australia was also a pioneer in surfing, winning 7 world championships, the record still stands.
🌬️ 🌊 🌊 🌊 🌊 🌊 🌊 🌊 🌊 🌊 🌊 Hang ten!
As you can tell by Itzl’s concerned look, this group is for us to check in to let people know we’re alive, OK, and not affected by heat, blizzards, floods, wildfires, hurricanes, tornadoes, power outages, or anything else that might keep us away from DKos. It’s also where we can find other Kossacks nearby to check in in person when other methods of communication fail – a buddy system. Members come here to check in. If you’re not here or anywhere else on DKos and there are adverse conditions in your area (floods, heatwaves, hurricanes, etc.), we and your buddy will check in on you. If you’re going to be away from your computer for a day or a week, let us know here. We care! IAN is a great group to join and a good place to learn journaling. Send one of us a PM to be added to the Itzl Alert Network at any time! We all share the publishing duties and welcome alwaysyou who reads IAN to write diaries for the group! Each member is an editor, so everyone gets a turn if they have something to say, photos and music to share, a cause to promote, or news to report!
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The French Connection
The 2024 Olympic surfing competition was held in Tahiti, an autonomous territory of France on the other side of the world. Tahiti’s Teahupo’o wave set on the southeastern side is one of the best surfing spots in the Pacific. In summer, it is regular and not too big, which is necessary for perfect form and more accurate evaluation. In winter, it can be as dangerous as Maui Jaws, as it also breaks over a coral reef, so it’s only for professionals.
A short video of the women’s competition – final round. Here you can see Florida’s Caroline Marks emerge from a long pipeline and break to the left, in perfect form. Brazil’s Tatiana Guimaraes Weston-Webb (a native Brazilian of English descent) then shows off some tight slalom moves and it’s very close, but the judges give Marks the win by 1/10 of a point.
Now the French have a special pride: the native Tahitian Kauli Vast wins big. The clip is from French TV, NBC wants us to sign up for it. At 37 seconds, here is the translation of Kauli’s run: “Here’s a look at Kauli’s technique… look, there they are at least 4 meters (notice he sticks his left hand into the wave front to stabilize and slow it down)… it’s a great wave… Kauli, who has surfed many great waves in his career, was even more intense in this series at the Final Bracket though…” At about 15 seconds, you see Johanne Defay suffer a serious head injury in the early brackets, but she came right back and took bronze. Brave, the people who do this sport. At about 1:20, the viral clip of Gabriel Medina finishing his set and blowing up; Johanne talks about hanging in there and getting along with her competitors and wishing them well at 2:33; at 3:30, you see Johanne Defay’s run that earned her the bronze medal, great form after injury, then Kauli’s pipeline and gold. There is a lot of sacrifice and hard work behind those medals.
Kauli Vaastproud French-Tahitian, gets the gold here in his backyard. Well done!
Video below from petite but brave Annie Reickert in the groundbreaking world of women’s big surf, along with local Hawaiian champion Moana Jones. A real Moana! She starts the video by explaining why female big wave surfers don’t want to be models. You can skip the BFF stuff, although it does provide insight into the sisterhood and brotherhood of big wave surfers. Olivia Jenkins an amazing kiteboarder. All Maui locals. Then Moana explains how rude it is for surfers to jump into someone else’s slot when they are on their home break (breaking someone’s wave can be dangerous anywhere). At 5:16 the famous Kai-Lenny explains why Maui Jaws Pe’ahi is so deadly sometimes. He should know, it almost killed him. Then Moana explains how to complete the Triple Crown and wants to be there for the big sets so she can submit all her entries. Annie’s family also gives some perspective (13:20). Moana and Annie surf a pipeline here, not too huge (summer) but it’s for shape and fun and all preparation for the big winter waves. Then shots of Annie and friends surfing Maui Jaws Pe’Ahi big waves (18:20), and after they’re all a bit beat up, someone crosses Annie’s slot and she has a fall (20:45) “over the falls.” Now we see what Moana meant when she said falling into someone’s slot – it’s dangerous, even life-threatening. Annie’s training kicks in, she bursts foam and is rescued, but loses the board. Several of her friends are injured as well, Maui Jaws is no joke. Kai and his brother Lenny, the Mountain Days later, she gets her board back from a Shewbie. Custom made board worth keeping. Moana completes her North Shore Triple Crown by winning the Pipe!
Kai Lenny, Annie Reickert, Billy ‘Kempai’ Kemperand other world-class pros. Below we’re surfing the north shore of Maui, winter waves. Please excuse the commentator’s language, but this is pretty hairy. Maui Jaws Pe’Ahi is focused by a coral outcrop below. These are about 60 feet high and have hundreds of tons of water in each swell (about 400 tons – imagine 100,000 gallon milk jugs crashing down on you, each weighing 8 pounds) and these young pros make it look so easy… It’s not, it’s dangerous as hell and can put you in the hospital or worse. NamakaGoddess of the waves, takes her share every year. As Kai Lenny and Billy Kemper have found out, they both have Lazarus years behind them. But back to their sport. Here Billy does big sets one after the other and then appears milliseconds in front of the “washing machine” of the second – that takes a lot of courage after a year in hospital and another in rehab, partially paralyzed:
But the world’s most powerful waves are Nazaré, Portugal. A magmatic upwelling just offshore shapes the waves into chaotic monsters that head towards the peninsula’s metamorphic headland, which is a very comfortable place for fans to hang out but a death zone for surfers. Not only the sheer size of the swell, which can reach up to 30m in winter, but the concentration of the waves close to shore means little room for rescue or ‘ducking’ as the distance between the crest and trough shortens just in front of the rocks. Before recent improvements in jet skis and life jackets, surfing here was suicidal. Even today, the world’s most experienced surfers find it intimidating. Here, experienced Australian Ross Clark-Jones demonstrates it for Australia 60 Mins. RCJ, also known as “Dark Bones” (his wipeouts are as epic as Evel Kneivel’s), hails from New South Wales and is a perennial favorite at the Eddie Aikau Invitational on Oahu’s north shore, winning several over the past 20 years. Ross’ good friend, American Garrett McNamara, broke the men’s record here, but was also hospitalized and was lucky to be alive after years of surgeries. Challenging Poseidon comes at a price. German surfer Sebastian Steudner just broke that record in February 2024, with a 94-foot wave measured by drone/satellite. That’s 800 tons of water if it catches you wrong. Almost a quarter of a million gallon jugs, 8 pounds per jug. Water is difficult.
Not to be outdone, the ladies of the Big Surf Riders also set records at Nazaré. Here Maya Gabeira confirmed with a 74ft tower in 2023, the tallest ever surfed by a woman. This was a huge personal triumph as she had slipped here ten years earlier and doctors said she would never surf again!
Like McNamara’s men’s record, this achievement came at a high price. 10 years earlier, as a hot young surfer, she had experienced a bad crash in Nazare in 2013, before speed inflator vests and improved jet skis. In her own words:
4 spinal surgeries later and after her partner and a doctor told her to stop, she came back after 10 years of surgeries and rehab in 2023 and took the women’s world record in Nazare in perfectly balanced form (see 9:40-55 in the last video, it’s beautiful how she emerges from “the machine”). It took decades of experience, improved equipment and a top-notch support team – as it does for anyone who dares to tackle these waves. Most of the successful Nazare surfers are a bit older, veterans of many seas and surf competitions, with a split-second judgement for every chaotic nuance of these monster waves and great support teams. May they all make it to the next wave, Shaka Mahalo!*
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*Shaka is a Japanese name for Buddha and is common in Hawaiian and surfer jargon = everything is good!
